GROZNY, Russia - Some 3,000 Chechens demonstrated Friday in the bombed-out city of Grozny against a Russian court's decision to clear four commandos of murder on the grounds that they were following orders when they gunned down a group of unarmed Chechen civilians.
The demonstration, which was rare for its size in the tense capital of Chechnya, included many young people and also members of the pro-Russian administration of the republic, where Russian forces continue to fight their second war against separatists in a decade.
"The verdict was unfair," Muslim Khuchiyev, a spokesman for the Russian-backed local president Alu Alkhanov, said. "We insist on another trial. Six of our citizens were killed. We will not allow that."
The protest concerned a jury verdict on Thursday at a military court in the southern Russian town of Rostov-on-Don which cleared four officers from the elite Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) forces of murder.
The officers admitted to their roles in the killing on January 11, 2002 of six Chechens, including a village school teacher and a pregnant mother of seven. However, the jury accepted their defence that they were simply acting under orders and therefore not responsible.
Placards at the Grozny rally targeted the man at the centre of the incident, Captain Eduard Ulman.
"Ulman -- murderer," one said. "Ulman -- facist," said another. "The murderer must pay."
The trial was one of only a handful of attempts in the past decade to bring Russia's military to book for what are widely said to be mass human rights violations in Chechnya.
05/20/2005 13:56 GMT